The Sustainable City Project Ruse in Chiapas

Paola Reyes

The Sustainable Rural Cities Project claims that it will reduce poverty in the Mexican state of Chiapas by relocating impoverished rural communities into centralized cities built by
the state government. It is part of a larger neoliberal development plan, the Plan Puebla-Panama, that was initiated in 2001 with the stated goal of integrating and developing the economies of the Meso-American region. Local indigenous farmers are sceptical–“It is clear that this plan is about forcing us to abandon our lands and for international companies to occupy them.”